Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, emphasized the need for a cultural shift within the company during an unveiling event in New York on February 26, 2025. He specifically called for increasing worker-to-manager ratios by a minimum of 15% by the end of the first quarter. This goal is one of several efforts to reduce red tape and encourage innovation internally at Amazon, the country’s second-largest private employer.
Since taking over from founder Jeff Bezos in 2021, Jassy has cut costs and streamlined operations to the bone. His efforts are aimed at reshaping Amazon’s organizational structure and resetting its culture, aligning it more closely with the entrepreneurial spirit that the company was founded upon.
Jassy’s alarmist warning comes in the wake of a new corporate edict to boost worker productivity by forcing corporate workers back into the office five days a week. He hopes this will help improve alignment and clarity across teams and departments. This new initiative fits into Jassy’s larger ambition from last year. His intent is to give organizations across Amazon a more flattened structure, improving their speed and adaptability to change.
“You have to keep remembering your roots and how useful it is to be scrappy,” Jassy remarked, underscoring the value of maintaining a startup mentality even as the company grows. He expressed concern that bureaucracy hinders innovation and creativity, stating, “I would say bureaucracy is really anathema to startups and to entrepreneurial organizations.”
With more than 1.5 million employees around the world, Amazon’s size creates distinct obstacles in fostering an innovative culture. It’s not surprising that Jassy’s strategy focuses on empowering employees. It cuts bureaucracy and creates a culture that enables a faster, more innovative flow of ideas and feedback through an organization.
Jassy is of course intimately involved in leading Amazon through this transformation. He continues to be focused on achieving an environment that will allow innovation to continue to prosper. He wants to cut workplace red tape. Taking this approach will open the floodgates of innovation and creativity within your workforce, helping your employees be more nimble and decisive.